Back pain and backpacks in children: biomedical or biopsychosocial model?

Abstract

Public press, professional organisations and journals have been sending alarming messages about the rising prevalence of back pain in school age children. Carrying backpacks has been suggested as one of the key factors contributing to back pain in children. The basic assumption based on the biomedical model is that the maturing spine cannot handle the mechanical load of the backpack sufficiently. A review of the evidence in the professional literature, however, revealed very limited evidence to support this assumption. On the contrary, the literature does suggest that psychological and social factors may be of greater importance to explain back pain in children. We conclude this clinical commentary postulating that the public, children and their parents are better served with a more modest and balanced perspective of the professionals, and propose that back pain in children (as it is in adults) should be viewed from a biopsychosocial model.